Schedule of Events

Symposium schedule will follow same schedule for both February 20 & February 21.

7:30am – 8:00am...........Breakfast

8:00am – 8:15am...........Announcements

8:15am – 9:15am...........Balanced Fire Safety Design &

Concrete Masonry Fire Walls

Kevin Cavanaugh

This program reviews fire statistics and the ASTM E119 Fire Test Method, which is used to qualify and quantify fire walls. Building Code over-reliance on Active Systems is reviewed to gain a better understanding of how useful and valuable noncombustible, passive fire wall systems are. Recent cost studies comparing different wall systems are briefly reviewed and highlighted.

9:15am – 9:45am.............Break with Exhibitors

9:45am – 11:15am...........Structural Masonry

Sam Rubenzer

Learn about the latest methods for advanced structural masonry design. Projects studies looking at poor, better, and best structural masonry designs will be reviewed.

Mr. Cavanaugh is a concrete and masonry industry consultant and independent product representative for Trinity Lightweight, cfiFOAM and Concrete Chemicals. He represents his clients, and serves on committees, at ACI and NCMA meetings and delivers Continuing Education presentations relating to Energy Codes and Fire Safety.

Pat Conway, Director, Technical Services & Education

Mr. Conway is a registered architect in Wisconsin, member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), IMI’s Director of Education, co-Director of IMI’s national masonry technical team, faculty member of IMI’s Contractor College, and distinguished masonry speaker and author.

Sam Rubenzer, Founder, FORSE Consulting & Structural Engineer

Samuel Rubenzer has over 20 years of experience in structural engineering. Early in his career, he worked as a structural engineer for design firms in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and spent 5 years at RAM International and Bentley Systems providing training to structural engineers on how to use structural software programs and design tools. Sam founded FORSE Consulting in January 2010 and continues to assist fellow structural engineers with designs on a variety of projects, building types, and uses of software programs. Sam is an expert in structural software programs and speaks at national structural engineering conferences on the use of software programs for the industry. He has also been the structural engineering consultant to the Wisconsin Structural Masonry Coalition since 2010. Sam has an MBA from Marquette University and a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Sam is a licensed Structural Engineer (SE) in the state of Illinois and a Professional Engineer (PE) in many of the Midwestern states.